A Queer Turn of Events

Homosexuality has played a queer role (yes, I know) in my relationship with The United Methodist Church. During the seventies and eighties it emerged as one of the red flags of right-wing Christianity along with abortion and capital punishment. Long-considered liberal among Protestant denominations, the newly united Methodist church was challenged to compromise with the more conservative evangelical strains that were included beneath the umbrella of what was then the largest Protestant denomination in the United States (a rank soon overtaken by the Southern Baptist Convention as the whole of American religion started tilting to the right). With tongue in cheek I thanked the gay community for focusing the General Church’s attention on whether homosexuals could be legitimately ordained or not; this aided those of us who chose to skirt the traditional route to ordination. But if anyone bothered to check out yesterday’s link they learned that the shenanigans of the Reverend Jimmy Creech, et al, also created a detrimental effect with regard to my needing the guidance and direction of a district superintendent who was instead obsessed with getting “her man” appointed to Omaha First. Having kept in touch with Nate Holt I was aware that he had been appointed by Bishop Elias Galvan as superintendent of the North District of the Desert Southwest Annual Conference. I inquired of my old friend about any possible openings that might prove to be less ambiguous than what was being proposed by the Nebraska folks. Nate said that he would get back to me because he was aware of a staff conflict at the (then) largest UM in Las Vegas, Nevada. What I had no way of knowing at the time was that during our eight years apart, Nate had turned into a raving homophobe.